Many mechanisms have been prepared for allowing vehicle seats to pivot from a fully upright position allowing access to, for example, the back seat of an automobile. However most of these mechanisms are very complicated and require a great number of parts to operate successfully. Further with the emphasis on safety and economy many mechanisms have been proposed which reduce the number of parts and hence the risk of failure and usually the cost to manufacture such a mechanism. Finally many of the aforementioned devices may lock in position to reduce the risk of physically upsetting the passengers or operator of a vehicle in emergency situations due to for example, sudden braking or accidental situations resulting in rapid deceleration of the vehicle.
Canadian Letters Patent No. 732,435 teaches a purported simple and economical hinge fitting for adjustable backrests for vehicles, having two pairs of hinge parts, comprising a tooth segment, a rotatably mounted pinion, a toothed wheel, a locking device, and a locking lever.
Canadian Letters Patent No. 950,819 teaches a vehicle seat latch of relatively complicated structure for maintaining a tiltable cushion back member of a vehicle seat structure in an upright position under conditions inducing inertially motivated tilting movement of said seat structure, having a latch bolt which captures a striker whenever the cushion back member is in an upright position and having a safety latch to assure the latch is secure under the aforementioned conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,838, discloses an inertia seat back lock which latches a tiltable seat normally in a fully upright position and prevents significant forward movement of the seat back when being subjected to rapid deceleration forces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,569 discloses a seat back latch mechanism, having a pivotally mounted pawl arranged so that its center of gravity is such that the seat back will tilt when urged to do so by a vehicle occupant. When the vehicle is subject to rapid deceleration the pawl engages a detent to prevent tilting of the backrest structure.
German Patent No. 2,708,461 teaches a Safety catch for an adjustable car seat having an inertial ratchet to lock the backrest joint in such as a collision.
Canadian Letters Patent Nos. 1,116,991 and 1,126,638 teach together, a reclining and emergency latch mechanism for vehicle seats which positively latches the seat back against undesired rearward and forward pivotal movement, said latch mechanism being infinitely adjustable and of simple a construction; said latch comprising a first and second disc shaped clutch quadrant having first and second parallel flat faces for rotation relative to the seat cushion, being secured in various positions by a latch dog pin having a pair of latch dogs secured to the seat cushion. This structure incorporates several pins, pivots, and co-operating shoulders and edges to operate efficiently and is more complicated in structure than the invention at hand.
French Patent No. 2556946 assigned to Sable Matra illustrates in FIG. 2 a seat latching mechanism more complicated in structure than the instant invention but having similar attributes.
It is therefore an object of this invention to simplify the structure of seat latch mechanisms by substantially reducing the number of components thereof and yet retaining all of the essential functions therein.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a structure which is economical to produce and simple and cost-effective to install.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide a latch mechanism that will lock forwardly and rearwardly.
Further and other objects of this invention will become apparent to a man skilled in the art when considering the following summary of the invention and the more detailed embodients of the invention illustrated herein.